Waiting for Gonzo

Gr 7 Up—Oz has just moved from his home in London to a small, sleepy village hours away from the big city. He misses his friends, does not like his family's fixer-upper farmhouse, and is not doing a great job making friends. On the first day of school he realizes that instead of bringing his school bag, he has brought his sister's dirty laundry, and, to make matters worse, he has decided that drawing a mustache and glasses on a girl's photo in the school display case is a good idea. Sadly, Oz is unaware that the girl is the school bully who terrifies everyone, even the other bullies. Oz never thinks his plans through and Waiting for Gonzo is like watching one botched attempt after another to fix what has gone wrong: trying to make friends with the school bully by feeding her dog (good) chicken bones (bad); or helpfully telling his sister's boyfriend all of her "flaws," causing him to leave her. But Oz remains hopeful and fairly optimistic that eventually he will get something right, so he keeps trying. The protagonist is well rounded and true to the awkwardness of a teenage boy trying to find his way. One oddity is the narrative structure: the story is told in conversation to "G," whom readers don't know the identity of until midway through the book. A good general purchase.—Lisa Nabel, Dayton Metro Library, OH